Cathie from Canada

"Do not go gentle into that good night.
Blog, blog against the dying of the light"

Thursday, June 17, 2004

Too many broomsticks

Rumsfeld admits secret detention of suspect in Iraq Either Bush fires this man, or he is, in effect, saying that making people "disappear" is OK with him.
How many other people have been disappeared this way? Didn't America used to condemn governments who acted like this?
But it does bring to mind the image of Mickey Mouse as the magician's apprentice -- America watching in despair as Rumsfeld and the Pentagon shatter more and more broomsticks in Iraq, each one springing to life again to march against the American occupation, resulting in more and more bombings and attacks, drowning competely the neocon dream of a pro-US democracy.
And meanwhile the broomsticks are multiplying at home too, with Bush and Cheney clinging vainly to the one shred of justification they have left for this mess, the belief they instilled in 60 per cent of Americans that Saddam had something to do with 9.11. As the New York Times says:
Of all the ways Mr. Bush persuaded Americans to back the invasion of Iraq last year, the most plainly dishonest was his effort to link his war of choice with the battle against terrorists worldwide . . . the Bush administration convinced a substantial majority of Americans before the war that Saddam Hussein was somehow linked to 9/11 . . . the claim has crept back into view as the president has made the war on terror a centerpiece of his re-election campaign. . . . There are two unpleasant alternatives: either Mr. Bush knew he was not telling the truth, or he has a capacity for politically motivated self-deception that is terrifying in the post-9/11 world. Sometimes there are just too many broomsticks broken.